Team Sites

My Model Portfolio: Stars, Scrubs, and High-End Starters

The Process:
Mixed leagues are adorable. Look at all of these players—the possibilities are almost endless. Even so, I stuck to my guns and played out a mostly stars-and-scrubs approach for this exercise. It’s my preferred strategy in any mixed league because the replacement-level value on the waiver wire in mixed leagues is significantly higher than in an “-only” format. Even if I completely whiff on estimating a player’s value or lose one due to injury, the waiver wire won’t be a complete wasteland when it’s time to find a replacement.

I’m not especially concerned with having three $1 players on offense because of the point I just made about replacement level being what it is in mixed leagues. Once I saw that Stephen Vogt was only $1, I knew I wanted to grab him and a $1 catcher to save some money at the position with an eye toward making Vogt my catcher once he gains in-season eligibility there. This allowed me to buy five offensive players for at least $21 each.

I started with Miguel Cabrera, who is the cheapest of the top six hitters at $40. Then I added Seager for $23, which is $8 less than Josh Donaldson’s listed price. Then it was time to get to work on the outfield, where after Bryce Harper I focused on cheaper players who I view as more valuable than the listed price in Betts, Martinez, and Austin Jackson. Brandon Moss was added for a power boost and positional flexibility as he’s eligible at both outfield and first base. After realizing how much money I still had left at this point, I filled in the middle infield with Tulowitzki, Kinsler, and Odor.

Overall, this is going to be a very good offense. It should be because of how much money I spent, but I believe I accomplished what I set to. There’s obviously a ton of power here, but this also appears to be a good average team. While my star players don’t steal bases, I have plenty of guys who will chip in with double-digit steals.

As you can see, it wasn’t a priority for me to get a closer. Instead, I opted to go with two starting pitchers up top to set the foundation for my staff. From there, I added a lot of upside with Walker, Odorizzi, Fernandez, and even Eovaldi and Bauer. Each of these starters has the potential to post big strikeout totals this year, though Fernandez won’t be ready until midseason. Of the closers-in-waiting, Soria was an attractive option at $2 after pitching well this spring training while Joe Nathan continues to struggle. In a mixed league, I’m content to build a strikeout staff and find more saves to supplement Soria later on.

These are fantastic. Loved 'EM last year, and loving them again!
Repeating a request I've put in the forums previously: Any way we could develop a game similar to Hacking Mass, where we subscribers can put together our own teams using these values, and then compete to see whose team earns the most $ over the course of the season?
How much start-up capital do you need to get that off the ground?